Expert on School Discipline to Present Findings at National Conference

Expert on School Discipline to Present Findings at National Conference

UB's Jeremy Finn will present a paper, “Misbehavior,
Suspensions and Security Measures in High School: Racial/Ethnic and
Gender Differences,” at a conference on school discipline,
suspensions, security and misbehavior in Washington, D.C.

Will describe results of study on racial and gender differences in school discipline

There will be a lot of discussion of alternatives to excluding students from school, which is known as harmful to many students. School security measures play a major part in this issue.

Jeremy Finn, Associate Dean for Research, Graduate School of Education

BUFFALO, N.Y. – University at Buffalo Graduate School of
Education Professor Jeremy D. Finn, PhD, will speak Thursday, Jan.
10, at a national conference on school discipline, suspensions,
security and misbehavior, with special emphasis on alternatives to
excluding students from schools.

Finn, a national educational expert whose specialties include
the effect of class size on learning, academic performance,
graduation rates and future employment, says the conference will
inform educational policy makers about current research on school
suspensions and racial/ethnic disparities in particular.

The conference, “Closing the School Discipline Gap:
Research to Remedies,” is sponsored by the UCLA Civil Rights
Project, the Equity Center at Indiana University, the Gallup
organization and others. It will be held at the Gallup Center in
Washington, D.C. Admission is free but registration is required.

“There will be a lot of discussion of alternatives to
excluding students from school, which is known as harmful to many
students,” says Finn, a professor and associate dean for
research in UB’s Graduate School of Education. “School
security measures play a major part in this issue. The
audience will be educational administrators, policy makers at all
levels and government representatives.”

Finn will present the paper, coauthored by Canisius
College’s Timothy Servoss, PhD, “Misbehavior,
Suspensions and Security Measures in High School: Racial/Ethnic and
Gender Differences.” In it, Finn and Servoss examine the
characteristics of schools that implemented the most extreme
security measures and those with the highest levels of
discipline.

The study used data on individual students to examine
misbehavior and race and gender disparities in suspensions.

The paper concluded with numerous findings. Among them:

Out-of-school suspensions were more frequent among schools in
higher-crime neighborhoods. Thus, students suspended may be
relegated to an environment not conducive to positive educational
or social outcomes.

In-school suspensions serve a “gateway” function
with regard to out-of-school suspensions. They may provide a time
and place to address behavior problems before they occur.

African-American students and Hispanic/Latino students were
suspended at higher rates than were non-Hispanic whites,
differences in most cases not attributable to different levels of
misbehavior.

“All of these have implications for school policy and
practice,” the paper states.

Finn was one of the principal investigators in the largest
randomized study ever done in American education on class size. The
landmark longitudinal study of 12,000 students started in 1985 and
is ongoing, as researchers assess whether there is a connection
between class size and other life characteristics such as
employment and mortality rates.

“The study has followed the students into young adulthood
and found long-term effects of attending small classes in
elementary grades," Finn says. "The benefits of small class size
include higher test scores, higher rates of taking advanced course
work and higher rates of taking the SATs and ACTs.”